Territorial Highway Update

Background

The Territorial Highway Corridor Plan will address safety for all users of a particularly dangerous section of Territorial Highway. The Plan will focus on a 5.7-mile long section of the Highway that extends south from Gillespie Corners to Cottage Grove-Lorane Road. This section is narrow and in poor condition. It is used by trucks, cars, bicyclists, and pedestrians. This is a key transportation link to rural communities and forest, farming, and winery businesses. The Plan will document the process of developing and selecting a preferred design alternative supported by the public. The Plan will also include preliminary designs for the preferred design alternative.

Project Update

Lane County and ODOT continue to partner in the planning and design process for improving Territorial Highway. They have been collecting information about cultural resources, wetlands, and geology — investigating what it would take to implement the preferred design alternative that was supported through the public process. There are design solutions for avoiding the cultural resource sites and for mitigating wetland impacts; however, the geological findings at Stony Point prompted further analysis of the preferred design alternative.

The results of the geotechnical readings indicate movement at the active slide at Stony Point. The stabilization needed to construct the preferred design alternative could be cost-prohibitive and would have a significant footprint. They have identified a range of possible alternative solutions, such as structural anchors and terracing. It may be necessary to consider alignment adjustments for cuts into the hillside. Any alignment changes would need to be discussed with affected property owners and would require additional geotechnical investigation.

Current funding will allow completion of the corridor plan and preliminary design work, but there is no funding identified to complete the design or to construct the improvements. They will seek funding to complete the design work through the upcoming State Transportation Improvement Program (STIP). Obtaining funding to complete the design will make the project “shovel ready” which better positions the project for construction funding.

Current Status

The Territorial Highway project from Gillespie Corners to the Town of Lorane is awaiting approximately $1million in funding from ODOT to complete the design phase. This is for further design work due to hillside slippage. The county expects to know by this Summer whether or not the funds will be available.